J'Accuse the Vicarious Principle.

As expected, the BBC UK News page this morning was full of tonight’s UEFA Cup Final between England and Italy. Platitudes abounded. Pundits, ex players and coaches demonstrated yet again that correct use of the English language is for wimps. Extreme reaction ruled in the promotion of the trivial and inconsequential. I found myself hoping that England lose, and here’s why:

The whole thing comes down to the vicarious principle – the idea that people can assume a sense of success and superiority based on the actions of others. I was guilty of it myself once, but the tendency is now greatly faded. I no longer need the actions of a few men kicking a ball around on a field in London to achieve a sense of success. Any sense of success I feel must be based on my own actions, not somebody else’s.

‘Ah, but,’ say the detractors (and I have heard them say it), ‘these men are representing you.’

Well, for a start, I don’t need or even want anybody representing me. But let’s look at the other side of the picture, the negative side.

It used to be normal practice in British public schools (Americans should read that as expensive private schools) to have ‘whipping boys.’  These were young boys designated to take punishment when older boys transgressed the rules. Older boys were considered to be above being whipped when they reached a certain age, and so younger boys had to take the corporal chastisement on their behalf. That’s the negative side of the vicarious principle, and is, therefore, essentially the same as assuming a sense of success from the actions of others. Such a principle is onerous in my eyes and deserves to end in tears. I do believe that people should take responsibility for their own actions, not those of others, and that relying on the vicarious is fraudulent either way.

So that’s why I wouldn’t be sorry if England lost tonight. And I’m well aware that if I stood on a soap box in the town centre and offered this argument, I would be howled down and probably attacked physically. It’s why I wouldn’t bother; the matter of football matches is not a significant enough reason to risk attack. I consider my argument reasonable, and reason has always been prone to attract violent response in the mind of the human animal. It happens every day, and even the BBC News pages occasionally report it.